In-Vitro Meat
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)
This is the current gold standard for in vitro meat culture medium.
Process to collect fetal bovine serum:
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Reproductive tract is removed from slaughtered pregnant cow.
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Needle is inserted into heart of fetus and blood is collected (cardiac puncture). This method minimizes danger of contamination.
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Blood is allowed to clot, then clotted substance is separated from serum by centrifugation.
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Serum can be used as culture medium for IVM.
(Jochems et al., 2002)
Pros
Since it is a complex mixture, serum-based culture medium provides most of the necessary nutrients for cell proliferation and maintenance (Gstraunthaler, 2003). The serum is rich in growth factors, which promote quicker cell growth, making it the standard supplement for cell culture medium (Gstraunthaler, 2003). Since it is collected directly from the cow, scientists do not have to spend much time and effort to develop a new medium from scratch (Gstraunthaler, 2003).
Cons
While fetal bovine serum is the status quo for IVM culture medium, there are serious ethical concerns with regards to animal welfare, since the process of collecting FBS may cause suffering to cows (Jochems et al., 2002). There is also a high possibility of microbial contaminants, such as fungi, bacteria, or viruses (Jochems et al., 2002). Serum-based media are often inconsistent, since the serum varies depending on which cow it was removed from (Gstraunthaler, 2003). Regular replenishing is also required in order to maintain viable medium (Gstraunthaler, 2003). Finally, it is expensive to collect FBS.
Even with these cons, scientists still haven’t been able to create a culture medium that is as successful as FBS, so this is still the most commonly used medium.
Plant-based Medium
This is a potential alternative to the problems associated with fetal bovine
serum as a culture medium. Plant extracts are used as the basic medium, then
supplemented with specific factors such as hormones and growth factors,
fatty acids and lipids, and vitamins and trace elements (Gstraunthaler, 2003).
Pros
Using plant-based medium will allow for chemically defined and controlled culture conditions. This will also reduce variability in culture medium composition and greatly decrease the likelihood of microbial contamination and infectious agents (Gstraunthaler, 2003). This medium is also entirely devoid of animal sources, and is relatively cheaper (Gstraunthaler, 2003).
Cons
The only recognized downside to plant-based medium is that it may cause allergic reactions for some consumers (Gstraunthaler, 2003).
Although scientists want to use this to produce in-vitro meat, a viable plant-based medium has not been developed yet.
Culture medium supplies all essential nutrients for cell metabolism, growth, and
proliferation. Scientists can control meat composition by manipulating the culture
medium. Some of the components added to the culture medium include
vitamins, nutrients, flavor, fatty acid composition, and fat content.
Which type of culture media would you like to learn about?
